The Central council of the All India Chess Federation decided to review the Rules governing the selection of Indian teams for the Olympiad / World / Asian team championships as the Rules in existence were made eight years ago. A sub committee was formed under the Chairmanship of the President, AICF which met on 02.10.2017 at Chennai and the following decisions were taken.
1. Criteria for selection of Indian Team for Olympiad/World Team Championship/Asian Team Championship: –
It has been decided to select Indian Men and Women team for Olympiad/World/Asian Team Championships on the basis of ELO rating. However the National Champion will get an added a bonus of 50 rating points and Women Champion 25 rating points.
Consequentially, the existing Rule of awarding 75 ELO points for players who participate in the National Challengers/Premier and National Women Challengers/Premier stands withdrawn with immediate effect and as such no ELO points will be added. For the purpose of calculating the rating, three months average rating of the player prior to the selection month will be taken in to account. The teams will be selected 3 months prior to the scheduled month of event.
For example, team for 2018 World Chess Olympiad which is scheduled in the month of September 2018 at Georgia will be selected in the month of June 2018 considering the rating average of FRLs of March 2018, April 2018 and May 2018. The same criteria will be applied for World and Asian Team championships. However, if the team earned the right to play World Team Championship based on the performance in World Chess Olympiad, then the same members of the team who participated in the Olympiad will be selected for World Team Championship. In case player from the Olympiad team is not available to play the World Championship due to any reason, the player(s) with highest rating(s) will be offered the empty slot by using the rating criteria. While determining the rating, the three months average rating of the player will be taken into consideration.
All stake holders are requested to be guided by the above decision which comes into operation with immediate effect